‘The Little Mermaid’ Flops in China, Amid Uproar Against Black Ariel

Disney’s live action “The Little Mermaid” has proved to be fairly popular in America, but overseas the film is struggling — especially in China, leading some to believe the market might be trending backwards in terms of acceptance of Black-led movies.This year’s “The Little Mermaid,” starring a Black actress, Halle Bailey, in the role of Ariel — who is depicted as white in the beloved 1989 animated film — has made just more than $236 million domestically since its May 26 release, according to Box Office Mojo. In Communist China, the world’s second-largest film market, the movie has taken in a mere $3.7 million to date. In South Korea and Japan, for comparison, the film has made $4.9 million and $5.1 million, respectively.The film has fared badly with the Chinese viewer rating site, Douban, which gave the film just two-and-a-half stars. Because the site lacks a verified viewer function it’s not clear how many people even saw this movie. “Review bombing,” in which internet users bombard a movie with bad online reviews even if they didn’t see it, is suspected.On Amazon-based IMDB, which was founded in the U.K. but is widely used in America, the movie enjoys the comparatively favorable 7.2 stars out of 10 and is currently the second most popular trending movie on the site.While there is the possibility that the film is being outcompeted by domestic Chinese films, the situation is once again raising questions about the reception of movies led by Black actors in China, and whether Hollywood will subtly adjust its movie strategies due to the negative reception received by a Black Ariel.Following the success of “Black Panther” in China in 2018 and of “Soul” in 2018, there was a moment in which it seemed Chinese audiences, which in the past had been resistant to Black-led movies, were finally warming to them. Yet the conspicuously poor performance and “review bombing” of “The Little Mermaid” has complicated the narrative around the rising acceptance of Black leads in China.The backlash against the film was encapsulated in an opinion piece written by the editorial board of the Chinese state-funded tabloid, Global Times. The piece railed against “forced inclusion of minorities,” calling the alleged practice a “lazy and irresponsible storytelling strategy.”“If Disney continues following this path, audiences, especially innocent children will no longer care if the ‘prince and princess live happily ever after,’ but ‘what is the skin color of the prince and princess,’” the editors of the Global Times wrote.In a conversation with the Hollywood Reporter last month, the film’s director, Rob Marshall, dismissed this criticism, saying that during auditions for the Ariel role “we saw every ethnicity.”“She immediately set the bar so high that no one surpassed it,” Mr. Marshall said of Ms. Bailey. “There was no agenda to cast a woman of color. It was really just, ‘Let’s find the best Ariel,’ and Halle claimed the role.”

‘The Little Mermaid’ Flops in China, Amid Uproar Against Black Ariel

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